Animate on an iPad

[Wildyorkshire]

I would find an iPad version of Animate useful.

I'm drawing on my iPad using Fresco, then exporting the PSD to Animate on my iMac for the animation.
I can onion-skin my drawing in Fresco, to get an idea of the movement but is there a way to get an instant replay of my animation as I go?

I'm using a simple program called FlippaClip which does just that, but I'd prefer to be working in an Adobe program, so that it links with Creative Cloud and is fully compatible with Animate and Premiere Pro.

[ClayUUID · Accepted solution]

The Adobe Animate team is drowning in bugs and optimization issues for the current version of Animate, and you're asking for an entirely new product? I can't imagine where you think the engineering resources for that would come from. Especially for something of such marginal utility.

[PizzaVacuum]

This is more of a weak argument than a "reality check". Adobe absolutely has the power to make an Animate ios app a reality. It's illogical to suggest otherwise. Why do you have excuses for Adobe? I sincerely don't understand why anyone professional or otherwise would give examples like bugs or optimization issues as excuses. You may not own or use an iPad Pro but those of us who do would really benefit from the ability to work on our projects on our iPad. I'm 100% certain that we will see an Animate App sooner than later, your comment just blew me away. Excelsior. 

[n. tilcheff]

Loving your iPad is one thing.

Dev reality - another.

Your optimism is based on just wishful thinking.

The traceable history of Animate in the last 6-7 years plots a very clear graph.

They release hotfixes of hotfixes full of bugs and regressions showing lack of any decent QA.

One has to be completely delusional to believe that such a project is well-funded, well-staffed and well-maintained, with bright prospects for the future.

[Julia5FE3]

Not sure why you felt the need to respond so rudely when the OP was making a very relevant comment about animation with adobe products. Adobe is a huge company that makes bank from people paying for their programs, so there is no reason to defend them as if they dont have the ability to hire people and make improvements on their platforms. Just because you see this as something of "marginal utility" doesnt mean that other people wouldnt like the idea of it.

Also- for the record- it doesnt sound like the OP wasnt demanding for a new product. He was simply saying it would be useful and listed out the reasons. After all, you cant animate in photoshop on the ipad, after effects app doesnt exist, and there really is NO animation software by adobe for use with the iPad. God forbid people wish they could use their $1000+ iPad to animate, but clearly that isn't important enough to adobe. 

To the OP, I personally cant answer any of your questions because I am wondering them myself, but it appears this person would rather defend adobe than give a realistic or helpful answer. 

[Wildyorkshire]

Just noticed that my original post was a year ago today. Sadly, like so many projects, the next animation that I was looking forward at that time was doomed not to get off the ground, but I'd love to get back into some kind of hands-on animation - 2D or 3D. One advantage of lockdown is that I have had opportunity to explore some of the Adobe programs that I'd never normally get around to trying, so in that way my £50 a month subscription to Adobe has been brilliant value . . . but a simple onion skin facility for the iPad is still there on my list of requests 🙂

[matthijsb20351750]

This answer sounds makes it sound like we should take anything we get from adobe for granted. Prices of subscriptions are very significant, so the argument of the entering team is already working on the current version sounds absolutely terrible to me.

[Drew5E83]

It is exactly up to us, the users, to make product requests.  It is exactly up to Adobe how to prioritize.  
Where does your take fit in here.  Seems to simply be signaling exasperation rather than usefully contributing. 

[Nick Gioia]

Oh come. There is bugs in all software, why not just move it over to the ipad pro. I always find work arounds for the bugs. That's how loyal I am to adobe flash/animate. I will never quit using it until they take it away. lol

[Wildyorkshire]

Still haven't got far with frame-by-frame but I did my last animation project on Character Animator (titles on Premiere Pro) I'm impressed by how expressive it can be.

[Ernst Design LLC]

I realize this is an old thread but are you an Adobe apologist? There is seriously NO EXCUSE NOT To provide an iPad version OR better development fixes. I have paid well over 100K on Adobe over three decades and I am not the only one whose expectations of our investment is very high.

[kglad]

@Ernst Design LLC 

for applicable apps, use https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/x-productkb/global/how-to-user-voice.html

for others, use https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

[Ernst Design LLC]

Seriously,

I do not need your non-responding links. The issue is Adobe has no excuse to its paying clientele. 

Don't presume and try and be helpful. 

[kglad]

i see i need to spell it out for you.

these are user forums. comments to other users about what you think adobe should or should not do in this forum are useless (unless you enjoy reading your own comments and wasting everyone else's time).

to make comments/suggestions to adobe decision makers, use the links you previously derided.

[Wildyorkshire]

Agreed, but I am loving Photoshop 2024.
For animation on the iPad I'm now enjoying Procreate Dreams, released last week. Not a replacement for Adobe's Character Animator as you can't rig characters but it makes the most of the iPad and Apple Pencil for drawing, onion skinning and transitions.

[Wildyorkshire]

Thanks for the reality check Clay 🙂
It would only be a case of adding a timeline to Fresco . . .

[Wildyorkshire]

As a work-around, I've opted for Clip Studio Paint EX (the version that includes an animation option) on my iPad Pro, which features a timeline. I can save my artwork as a PSD and animations as MP4s, so I'm hoping that will prove compatible with Photoshop, Animate and Character Animator.
But I look foward to a Creative Cloud drawing app with a timeline (even if ClayUUID considers this a 'marginal utility'!)

[samuelm50986257]

I think saying "The Adobe Animate team is drowning in bugs and optimization issues" while might be real, won't help keep jobs for Adobe teams for a quickly growing world where frame by frame is trending and iPad tools are starting to fill in the gap. 

[Wildyorkshire]

One way to draw in Animate using an iPad Pro is to use Sidecar, which transfers your iMac screen to the iPad.

I've done a brief experiment by opening a document in Animate on my Mac, then transfering it to my iPad and drawing with my Apple Pencil. It works but, so far, I'm finding there's a bit of a lag between drawing and the line appearing, so it's not the smooth drawing experience that I'm used to with Fresco.

[Wildyorkshire]

Great to see a timeline on the latest version of Fresco, thanks for that Adobe.

I like that the timeline is in the Fresco style, so that I can just go ahead and use it in a similar way to all the other tools.

[defaultzxov4q01w9oh]

You might to be able to use sidecar on Mac but I'm not sure.

[nmecodes]

Adobe has dropped the ball hard here.

[kglad]

@nmecodes 

what are you talking about?

[Nick Gioia]

I too would like to see it on the iPad but Adobe Fresco can do a lot of cool animation stuff and slowly they keep adding more animation features. Pretty cool stuff. Also check out Toonsquid. Probably the closes animation app you can get on the iPad that is really close to animate. https://toonsquid.com/

[james38130376n845]

Use the timeline feature to create frames. Enable onion skinning to view multiple frames at once. Play the animation directly in Fresco to see movement in real time. It integrates seamlessly with Creative Cloud, allowing you to seamlessly upload to Animate and Premiere Pro on your iMac.